If you take a look at recent photos of the country's major cities, you will see that they have become bombed-out, burned-out shells with no supporting functional infrastructure.

Still, various factions continue fighting over ground, over cities that are no longer capable of producing anything – except misery. And yet people still live in these destroyed cities, even though there is no economy and no prospects. So, how are they surviving?

Many Syrians are bartering in order to stay alive. They exchange goods for goods, but also services for services and skills for skills. You can imagine that anyone with medical training is probably in a great position to barter that skill for pretty much anything he or she would need to live.